Shaker card in autumn colours

An early post today as I'm off to our Regional Training event in Leeds. I can't wait to see up close the goodies we're getting in our new Mini Catalogue, learn some new techniques ... and of course we can't get together without doing some swapping. It's been a busy few weeks but I've managed to get around 30 swaps prepared. There are 70 of us going so I won't get chance to swap with everyone but I know I'll come away with some fantastic creations and tons of inspiration.

Back to today's crafting share. One of our March challenges over at In Love With Stamping is to create a card with movement and so I decided to create a shaker card. Now I know that this design is totally the wrong time of the year but I loved the idea of having the shaker bits be "leaves" from a tree and so that meant autumn and warm colours.

Hope you can cope with me switching the seasons round on you, lol.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Forest Friends, Lovely as a Tree

Cardstock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Whisper White, Medium Window Sheet

Ink: Cajun Craze

SU Markers: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie

Punches: 1-3/4" Circle, Corner Rounder, Scallop Trim Corner, Scallop Trim Border, Eyelet Border (for shaker dots)

The card blank is a 4" square of Old Olive. The tree was coloured direct to stamp with markers and stamped onto Whisper White card. This was adhered direct to a mat of Pumpkin Pie that was punched with the Scallop Trim Corner and Border. A square of Cajun Craze was punched centrally with the 1-3/4" Circle and the corners punched with the Corner Rounder. Using the dinky leaf stamp from Lovely as a Tree and Cajun Craze ink this layer was random stamped. Medium Window Sheet was adhered behind the aperture and edge strips from dimensionals run around the outer edge of the aperture (ensuring no gaps for the shaker bits to get through). The shaker was filled with dots/"leaves" created using the Eyelet Border punch on Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard and Cajun Craze card (the strips punched are saved for future projects). The card was then assembled, popping the shaker sandwich up on dimensionals on the card front.

Have a great weekend.

Sara xx

Silver snowflakes for Sketch Saturday

Brrr! It's cold out there isn't it? So lovely to be tucked up warm and cosy in front of the fire. Better still, I had a bit of time for crafting yesterday and had everything to hand, so I had a go at this sketch challenge from over at Sketch Saturday:

I went with one of my favourite colour combos and used a new wheel that I hadn't had chance to play with yet because of all my travels. Just had to wait then for today to have enough light to photograph it :-)

Recipe

Stamp sets: Lovely as a Tree, Season of Joy, Music Notes

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black, Versamark

Punches: Scallop Oval, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms

Other: Silver EP, Basic Rhinestones

Non-SU: Silver Cardstock, Die cuts

The card base is a 5" square of Real Red, matted with Basic Black and more Real Red. I wheeled the Music Notes across Whisper White card using Basic Black ink, three times and trimmed to strips to fit the card front. The tree, snowflakes and sentiment were stamped in Versamark onto Basic Black card and heat embossed with Silver EP. The tree was die cut and matted onto silver card, also die cut, then popped up on dimensionals on the left of the card front. After punching the sentiment out with the Large Oval it was matted direct to a Scallop Oval of silver card and popped up on dimensionals in the top right corner. The snowflakes (the centre of the snowflake in a circle stamp from Season of Joy) were punched out with the middle flower of the Boho Blossoms punch, popped up on dimensionals and finished with a tiny Rhinestone in the centre of each.

Keep warm.

Sara xx

Traditional christmas with a bit of spritz

Well I'm back in Cardiff again and training hard. Management theory this week. Anyone else remember Porter's five forces? Nope? Me neither ... but I'm sure I will before the week's out. At least I hope so.

I thought I'd post this card today before I forget it too. I made it on Saturday morning for my sample board and ending up giving it to a couple of my crafting customers at a workshop in the afternoon! What sort of quick turnaround is that? Lol.

My ladies loved the traditional look with the popped up baubles and want to recreate it at home. They bought the two stamp sets but were worried that they wouldn't remember just how the card was made (they aren't big on using the internet ... yet, who knows though), so of course I had to let them keep it.

I've seen various versions of this card on the internet so I certainly won't claim it as original but I'm not sure who came up with it first. If anyone knows then I'll be happy to give credit.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Lovely as a Tree, Contempo Christmas

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Very Vanilla

Ink: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler

Punch: Ornament

Other: Gold Elastic Cord, Color Spritzer Tool, Paper Piercing Tool

I used the fir tree from the Lovely as a Tree set and simply stamped it at an angle (in Garden Green ink on Very Vanilla card) to make it look like branches, making sure that the base of the tree was stamped off the card. Next up was the new Spritzer tool. I've been itching to use this and I'm really taken with it - a chance to spatter without the mess, lol. You just put your marker pen (Garden Green in this case) in the tool and squeeze the bulb. It's best to practice on some scrap first to work out how far from the card to spritz, the further away you are, the more even the spatter (but not too far away, lol). As I was using the clear mount stamps I was easily able to stamp the sentiment just where I wanted it. The baubles were stamped in Cherry Cobbler (it's such a deep, rich red) onto Very Vanilla card and punched out with the Ornament. Each one was tied with a bow of Gold Elastic Cord. I then taped Gold Elastic Cord behind each bauble, used the Paper Piercing Tool to pierce a hole at the appropriate point on each branch, threaded the Cord through and taped it in place behind the layer. Dimensionals keep the baubles in place on this card but you could let them swing freely. The card front is layered onto a mat of Garden Green and then onto the Cherry Cobbler A6 portrait card blank.

Here's a closer view of the spritzing.

Now I'm going to skive off the revision for one night. Heading out for a crafty night with my friend Dawn but it'll be nose to the grindstone all the rest of the week.

See you soon.

Sara xx

A thumping good corner bookmark

I've just had a really fun afternoon with a group of lovely ladies who kept me laughing the whole time. We did a One Sheet Wonder class that I adapted from the Stamp With Us online classes for my own Christmas variation. Everyone ended up with 8 cards completed in just over 2 hours! Not bad. I can't share pix yet because we used one of the new colours that I'm not allowed to post until 1 Oct. Thanks for a great afternoon ladies, looking forward to seeing you at the workshop on 2 Oct.

Then I got a bit distracted watching the Strictly Come Dancing line-up. There are some interesting pairings this year, lol.

Finally I'm back to finishing today's post and for now I thought I'd share one of the projects that Jan and I made at our Stampette's training on thursday night. This is a bookmark card that mixes Jenny's great bookmark project over at Stamping Moments, with a technique we practised, called thumping. Perhaps crafting should be considered a contact sport given all the stamping and thumping and punching that goes on?

Recipe

Stamp set: Lovely as a Tree

Cardstock: More Mustard, Ruby Red, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla

DSP: Pumpkin Pie Patterns

Ink: More Mustard, Ruby Red, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, 1-1/4" Circle

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: More Mustard

See Jenny's tutorial here for the instructions for the bookmark. I kept the offcut corner from the base bookmark and matted it onto a 5" square card blank of More Mustard that had half the front cut off diagonally. Another of the DSP triangles was adhered over the mat. The tree was "thumped" onto Very Vanilla card then matted onto squares of Pumpkin Pie and Really Rust card.

For the thumping technique you simply ink your stamp in the base colour (here - More Mustard) and the use the flat edge of your pen nib to tap more colours direct to the stamp before huffing and stamping. We added Ruby Red, Really Rust and Pumpkin Pie which you can see a bit better in the close up here.

The bookmark is a handy little gift to hang on to after the card is done with.

Lovely as a Tree will be available in the new catalogue, as will Pumpkin Pie and More Mustard.

Really Rust and Ruby Red are both retiring though so if you're wanting any supplies in these colours, you'll need to order them now before they're gone forever.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx